Vogue Runway

VEJAS: S/S 2017 READY-TO-WEAR

Showing a collection in Paris is the stuff that fashion dreams are made of. And yet it’s something Vejas Kruszewski has been able to cross off his list at the tender age of 19.

It’s not the first time the Canadian designer, who is entirely self-taught, has presented his Vejas label in a major fashion capital—he made waves at New York Fashion Week in February with his show at a gallery space in lower Manhattan. His clothes have won him tons of positive attention since then, most notably a special award of 150,000 euros and a year’s mentorship at the LVMH Prize ceremony this past June. Ironically, he is still too young to drink to his success in any of the LES hangouts near where he staged his debut. There were several familiar downtown New York characters at his presentation in the Marais today, including DJ Venus X, model Hari Nef, and the stylist Haley Wollens, who worked with Kruszewski on the collection.

The clothes were worth the journey. Using vintage dressmaking patterns sourced on Pinterest as a jumping-off point, the designer reworked the parameters of pieces, such as classic five-pocket jeans, in pleasing, topsy-turvy ways. Fly zippers moved from the waist to the leg of unisex jeans; back pockets wandered to the hip. That slightly askew approach to design was particularly effective on an off-the-shoulder shirtdress that was gently ruched with the construction of an antique bra in the front. The technique was just as eye-catching on the simplest of white tees, too.